This week sees the release of Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, a new animated television series created by John Wick's Derek Kolstad based on Ubisoft's popular espionage-themed video game franchise. But that isn't the only piece of news related to the iconic series that seems to be making headlines (thanks PC Gamer!).
That's because, to celebrate the release of the animated series, it appears Ubisoft has quietly (and rather surprisingly) decided to rerelease the second game in the series, the 2004 title Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, on Steam (and other storefronts including Ubisoft Connect and the Epic Games Store), over 21 years after the game was originally launched on Windows PCs.
Before you go getting too excited, this new version on Steam isn't some sneaky remaster with widescreen and other lovely bells and whistles to make it more appealing to revisit, but is instead a fairly bog-standard reissue.
Instead, the only change Ubisoft has reportedly made is to make it compatible with Windows 10/11 machines, seemingly fixing some graphical issues that had previously plagued the earlier release of the title when using more modern hardware. The game also requires that players log in to Ubisoft Connect, regardless of whether you're playing on Steam or Epic, which might put some people off picking up the title.
In case you're unfamiliar, Splinter Cell's original developer, Ubisoft Montreal, didn't return for the creation of Pandora Tomorrow, with development duties being split between Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Shanghai. The story of the game, meanwhile, saw players reprising the role of the Third Echelon agent Sam Fisher (voiced by Michael Ironside), with Fisher this time around having to stop a terrorist's plot to carry out a bio-attack with a deadly disease.
The game costs £8.99 on Steam (£5.39 as part of an introductory offer), with Ubisoft Connect also selling the game at a discounted price of £2.99 until the end of this month.